City Lights Country Blues

Product Notes

Parrish Ellis (vocals, resonator & archtop guitar, fretted & fretless banjo, guitjo, ukulele, fiddle), is the guitarist/singer/songwriter in the acoustic quartet The Wiyos, who tour full-time internationally playing performing arts center and high profile festivals. Parrish grew up in Richmond, Virginia where his guitar teacher introduced him to the world of old-timey American rural music and opened his ear to the singular styles of John Hurt, Norman Blake, Gary Davis and Elizabeth Cotten. After studying classical guitar for two years in college (where he met Joebass of The Wiyos), he picked up the banjo and traded his sheet music for a comprehensive record collection of country blues, ragtime, swing, jugband and Appalachian mountain music. Since his indoctrination into these traditional American folk music idioms, he has delved much deeper into the idiosyncratic styles of numerous obscure players. His most recent release (September 2008) is an album of rural blues, ragtime and field holler interpretations entitled â€œCity Lights, Country Bluesâ€. Engineered and produced by Joe \'joebass\' Dejarnette at 808A studio in Brooklyn, NY; the recording also features Trip Henderson on harmonica, Teddy Weber on steel guitar & archtop guitar, Michael Farkas on harmonica, and Joebass on upright bass and guitar.

Parrish Ellis (vocals, resonator & archtop guitar, fretted & fretless banjo, guitjo, ukulele, fiddle), is the guitarist/singer/songwriter in the acoustic quartet The Wiyos, who tour full-time internationally playing performing arts center and high profile festivals. Parrish grew up in Richmond, Virginia where his guitar teacher introduced him to the world of old-timey American rural music and opened his ear to the singular styles of John Hurt, Norman Blake, Gary Davis and Elizabeth Cotten. After studying classical guitar for two years in college (where he met Joebass of The Wiyos), he picked up the banjo and traded his sheet music for a comprehensive record collection of country blues, ragtime, swing, jugband and Appalachian mountain music. Since his indoctrination into these traditional American folk music idioms, he has delved much deeper into the idiosyncratic styles of numerous obscure players. His most recent release (September 2008) is an album of rural blues, ragtime and field holler interpretations entitled â€œCity Lights, Country Bluesâ€. Engineered and produced by Joe \'joebass\' Dejarnette at 808A studio in Brooklyn, NY; the recording also features Trip Henderson on harmonica, Teddy Weber on steel guitar & archtop guitar, Michael Farkas on harmonica, and Joebass on upright bass and guitar.